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Abstrakt
| Nowadays, the role and importance of ethnic groups play an increasingly crucial role and thus they constitute challenges of the twenty-first century. There is no doubt that contemporary events, especially in the context of the war in Ukraine or Afghanistan, have a direct impact on today’s ethnic image of the world. Which, in turn, significantly affects all aspects of economic and social development. Thus, it seems that ethnic groups should be a permanent element of regional development, as well as a key factor in achieving sustainable regional development. The Opole Province constitutes the most ethnically distinct Polish area that is characteristic of a high concentration of the German-originated population. Up-to-date research studies have shown different characteristics of the Silesian population of German origin resulting from unique cultural and civilizational roots and a different systems of values, which causes different effects in the social and economic spheres. The paper aims to show the role of ethnic diversity from a regional perspective. The method chosen for this study is a survey, carried out among local government officials, who expressed their opinions on whether the ethnic diversity of the region, and thus the occurrence of the German minority, has a notable positive impact on the tolerance of the region’s inhabitants towards other nationalities and ethnic groups, and whether, this ethnic diversity in the context of German minority has a positive influence on the image of the region as a region open to otherness, tolerant and integrated. The local government officials also considered the role of the ethnic diversity in improving the educational and cultural offer in the region, as well as in the enrichment of the common cultural heritage. The paper concludes with an overview of the positive features that an ethnic group can constitute from a regional perspective.. |
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